Post by anenro on Jul 31, 2019 14:13:41 GMT 4
Cambodia and Laos casinos targeted for drug-trade money laundering
Anti-narcotic investigators are searching for signs of money laundering in the casinos that have spread across Sihanoukville, a Cambodian coastal city that has become a magnet for Chinese high-rollers, amid the booming methamphetamine market in Southeast Asia.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates the region’s meth market — Southeast Asia is the world’s epicenter of the synthetic drug — to be valued at $ 61.4 billion annually, more than double the Cambodian economy of $24 billion.
“The casinos in Sihanoukville are now worth looking into, as you have currency exchanges in all of them, and there are currency wire services just next to the gambling tables,” an international investigator told the Nikkei Asian Review. “All the punters are Chinese and they gamble with thick stacks of 100 dollar bills.”
Under Prime Minister Hun Sen, Cambodia’s pro-China strongman, the once sleepy resort town of Sihanoukville has been rapidly transformed in recent years through Chinese-led development projects. New apartments, hotels and casinos have given the town its new look.
The Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental global money-laundering watchdog, this year placed Cambodia on its “gray list,” affirming concerns about the unregulated world of the country’s gambling dens. The designation comes as Cambodia witnesses a surge in gambling, with the UNODC estimating that nearly 150 of the 234 casinos across Southeast Asia are based in Cambodia.
Transnational criminal networks driving the meth trade are taking advantage of Cambodia’s porous borders and it is being run with a U.S. dollar economy — dollars are readily used for all transactions over the Cambodian riel, the local currency.
“Suitcases full of cash are brought across the Thai-Cambodian and Vietnam-Cambodian borders regularly, and exchanging them for dollars does not raise eyebrows,” a Western diplomatic source told Nikkei. “The unregulated casinos are ideal venues to launder this cash.”
The UNODC said as much — though without naming a country — in a recent report. “Methamphetamine trafficking is the most lucrative business for transnational organized crime groups in the region,” it said in the report titled “Transnational Organized Crime in Southeast Asia: Evolution, Growth, and Impact.”
“The illicit proceeds are laundered through various channels, in particular, the growing network of casinos in the region,” it said.
Anti-narcotic investigators are searching for signs of money laundering in the casinos that have spread across Sihanoukville, a Cambodian coastal city that has become a magnet for Chinese high-rollers, amid the booming methamphetamine market in Southeast Asia.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates the region’s meth market — Southeast Asia is the world’s epicenter of the synthetic drug — to be valued at $ 61.4 billion annually, more than double the Cambodian economy of $24 billion.
“The casinos in Sihanoukville are now worth looking into, as you have currency exchanges in all of them, and there are currency wire services just next to the gambling tables,” an international investigator told the Nikkei Asian Review. “All the punters are Chinese and they gamble with thick stacks of 100 dollar bills.”
Under Prime Minister Hun Sen, Cambodia’s pro-China strongman, the once sleepy resort town of Sihanoukville has been rapidly transformed in recent years through Chinese-led development projects. New apartments, hotels and casinos have given the town its new look.
The Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental global money-laundering watchdog, this year placed Cambodia on its “gray list,” affirming concerns about the unregulated world of the country’s gambling dens. The designation comes as Cambodia witnesses a surge in gambling, with the UNODC estimating that nearly 150 of the 234 casinos across Southeast Asia are based in Cambodia.
Transnational criminal networks driving the meth trade are taking advantage of Cambodia’s porous borders and it is being run with a U.S. dollar economy — dollars are readily used for all transactions over the Cambodian riel, the local currency.
“Suitcases full of cash are brought across the Thai-Cambodian and Vietnam-Cambodian borders regularly, and exchanging them for dollars does not raise eyebrows,” a Western diplomatic source told Nikkei. “The unregulated casinos are ideal venues to launder this cash.”
The UNODC said as much — though without naming a country — in a recent report. “Methamphetamine trafficking is the most lucrative business for transnational organized crime groups in the region,” it said in the report titled “Transnational Organized Crime in Southeast Asia: Evolution, Growth, and Impact.”
“The illicit proceeds are laundered through various channels, in particular, the growing network of casinos in the region,” it said.
